Favorite Quote

“Men do not attract what they want, but what they are.”

Main Idea

For any change to occur in our lives, the only thing we need to do is change our thoughts.

Review

I should definitely have a category for short little treasures and As A Man Thinketh by James Allen would be the first on the list. It definitely bears similarity with Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search For Meaning in which the author is able to find meaning as a captive of a Holocaust camp at the time. On the other hand James Allen does not give any context to his book which implicitly means that As A Man Thinketh is intended for a Universal context.

At a glance it is easy to confuse the intention of this small work of art, with some vain feel good 5 minute technique. But, at the very opposite:

“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”

The only logical conclusion is that those things we are not satisfied with in our own personal lives are the sole consequence of our own thought. We are the sole perpetrator.

Favorite Quote

“The secret to wealth is simple: Find a way to do more for others than anyone else does. Become more valuable. Do more. Give more. Be more. Serve more.”

Main Idea

Spend less than you earn, and invest the difference in order to live the life you imagine.

Review

As a Finance Major I have been pleasantly surprised with my latest two reads pertaining the complex and beautiful world of money, The Richest Man In Babylon as well as Tony Robbin’s MONEY Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom. As practical knowledge goes, MONEY Master The Game did more for me than four years of an expensive education. Tony, on the book itself mentions that “Execution trumps knowledge every single time”, which made me think a lot of all the education I had in the past, specifically financial education and how I had so much theory from my college years, but little practicality.

The edge of MONEY Master The Game over any over Financial book is that Robbin’s strength is inspiring to perform specific strategies towards the success of the individual. This book is no exception, in which he does not try to write a thesis on the financial markets as of today, but to decouple it, simplify it and place in your hands all of its power. As he mentions numerous times: Complexity is the enemy of execution.

Favorite Quote

“Being the best means engineering your life so you never stop until you get what you want, and then you keep going until you get what’s next. And then you go for even more.”

Main Idea

Being Relentless does not stop at Good or even Great, Relentlessness is becoming an Unstoppable force.

Review

I had never heard the name Tim Grover when I started enjoying Relentless, but this guys is the definition of epic. Tim recounts in his own narrative how he had the dream of training professional athletes for a living. Dream that would usually get the typical response: Oh! That is so nice, so you want to work at a Gym. Tim would not only reply, but with passion shoot down those “suggestions” or “good wishes” out of the sky:

NO. I AM GOING TO TRAIN PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES

Not like this is an easy thing to say, specially when you are relentlessly calling teams like the Chicago Bulls and you get sent back to the out of college experience cycle:

“Hey Bulls, my name is Tim and I want to train your players”

“Tim, have you ever trained a professional basketball player before?”

“No.”

“Then we are not interested.”

Tim never gave up, and eventually got an opportunity with THE Michael Jordan. And from there, this just gets even crazier.

Favorite Quote

“Become obsessed about the things you want, otherwise you are going to spend a lifetime being obsessed with making up excuses as to why you didn’t get the life you wanted.”

Main Idea

The only road for being above average is obsession. A desire to be extraordinary, with no burning obsession, will always result in average.

Review

When I picked Be Obsessed Or Average up, or more specifically when I looked at the cover in my Audible app, I wondered what was Grant Cardone doing on top of a Jet Turbine. Since we are both insane I did not paid much attention to it, until he mentioned on the book that he actually bought a jet. He described the endeavor as something so out there, (even for him), that his accountant could not make sense of it from any perspective. Not like is an easy challenge convincing an accountant of spending more money, it is almost as if brings out some of their allergies. Cardone will not only convince you that buying a jet is possible, but that anything is possible. Nothing can stand on the way of the Obsessed.

Think about one of our icons who changed our worlds as we know it. Would you say athletes like Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, Lionel Messi or other business crazies like Ellon Musk, Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs were not obsessed to the point of lunacy? What about Oprah, Tony Robbins or Dwayne Johnson? Their energy is so intense than even before they speak or act, they can take over a room. Grant Cardone has this energy. He will convince you that the energy created by unparalleled obsession is he ultimate problem solver, the ace under your sleeve, the ultimate Trump card.

Favorite Quote

“You need to be doing fewer things for more effect instead of doing more things with side effects.”

Main Idea

One thing, the right thing, will move any endeavor forward at a pace that seems inexplicable.

Review

The One Thing is a simple concept. Few pages in you can understand the book, however The One Thing expands its One idea into a practical almost scientific approach to amazing Time Management. The biggest question we can ask when starting to manage our time in The Magic 3 is WHY. Because if we possess abundant clarity on the purpose of what we are doing, an interesting phenomenon occurs, our to do list starts shrinking on its own. Our initial list of things we had to do, because a list of things we must do, in essence the essence of the project. The One Thing does a fantastic job at this as well, if we are always working on the most important next step, we will avoid a lot of unnecessary items, but more importantly keep moving at a rapid pace.

Favorite Quote

“We like those who resemble us, and are engaged in the same pursuits. . . . We like those who desire the same things as we [do].”

Main Idea

Unconsciously with our body language, tone of voice, words and the friendship formula we send out foe or friend signals. Understanding all of the elements in the Like Switch and more specifically in the friend formula we are able to adjust to turn on the Like Switch with whoever we meet, even turning foreign spies into allies.

Review

Any book that starts off with an anecdote of having students joining a College class from a former FBI agent as a way to pick up girls more effectively deserves more than attention. Jack Schafer takes a traditional approach in conveying body language cues as well as timeless principles from Dale Carnegie’s How To Win Friends And Influence People making them special and relatable. The two former are achieved by using plenty of fun FBI interviews, real life situations like texting and delayed flights as well as the occasional marital dispute.

Favorite Quote

“The reason why we have never found measure of wealth. We never sought it.”

Main Idea

The most important factor in accumulating extraordinary wealth is the discipline of placing aside 10% of our income. The 7 rules below facilitate this discipline, makes this money work for us and places it in a safe place.

Review

Honesty, is one of my many traits, (not so many), and being really honest, I hated The Richest Man In Babylon when I began listening to it. The book was published in 1926 and its author George S Clason purposefully tried to make the dialogue and narration sound ancient throughout the book. So here I was, a Finance graduate, listening to an old book, that wanted to sound ancient narrated in Audible by someone who was trying really hard to sound like a Medieval jester. A jester who gave up on jokes and started teaching finance to all of us, the bored peasants in the kingdom who wanted a break from Netflix.

“The choices that are most powerful in generating motivation, in other words, are decisions that do two things: They convince us we’re in control and they endow our actions with larger meaning.”
― Charles Duhigg, Smarter Faster Better

Main Idea

Adopting any of these 8 particular mindsets will drastically increase your productivity, in whatever sphere you so choose.

Review

Charles Duhigg with compelling his signature compelling story telling has done it again. This book as well as his previous is packed with true extraordinary stories from the most diverse of subjects. The making of Frozen, exceptional piloting in the face of death, a brother and sister facing off Phil Hellmuth on the final of a Poker Tournament, Google finding the key to productive teams, how an outrageous goal restarted the Japanese economy. This books is exceptional.

However, thinking of Smarter, Faster Better as a collection of stories is undervaluing the true value of Duhigg’s work. Each of these illustrates with clarity an important lesson on productivity and excellence. The most helpful aspect of these 8 Lessons is that there are independent of each other and are very simple mindsets. Which means it does not take extensive practice to implement, and it can be done so as an a la carte menu, one or many at the time as desired. The cornerstone of these is the lesson on Motivation, which relates key aspects and inspiring stories of Marine training. It can be summarized by the above quote which is the WHY in The Magic 3.

How It Made Me Better

Across my diverse readings, it is always exciting when you find overlapping concepts throughout books on different subjects. This has been the case with goal setting, which has been described by many as the single most life changing activity anybody can acquire. According to Smarter Faster Better, there are Smart Goals and Stretch Goals, which are both necessary for real fulfillment. A Stretch Goal, is a goal outside of our comfort zone, which we do not immediately know how it can be achieved on our current situation. A Smart Goal, is a reachable, achievable goal inside our comfort zone. We should create only Stretch Goals, because these are the ones that make us better and truly motivate us, but only if inside our HOW is broken down into Smart Goals. Focusing on the next Smart Goal, we can achieve any Stretch Goal. Duhigg’s work has forever changed the way I set my goals, which in turn has made my life much more exciting.

By far my favorite quotes on the book is Daymond’s own definition of the Power Of Broke:

“The ability to harness unparalleled activity and passion stemming from having nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

Main Idea

The main idea in the book by Shark Tank star Daymond John, is that being broke is fuel. It can be the fuel you use to power the excuses you make for not being where you want to be or it can be the fuel that gets you there really fast. In other words, you do not need money to make money, just passion and creativity.

Review

The Power Of Broke can be a little difficult to digest for some, our self limiting beliefs are rooted firmly in our hearts and it can only be detached with effort and a lot of pain. We believe that the time is not right, or that we yet do not have enough money for a particular situation, but then how can we explain all the success stories described by Raymond in which all of the protagonists including himself made themselves a fortune out of nothing.

One of the most important lessons in the entire book is that Money is just a solution when there is no Creativity or Passion, and ironically it costs more and provides worst results. When startups and individuals are in the “broke mindset” they need to scramble and find ways to make things happen when limited resources is an understatement. It is true what is said, that necessity is the father of innovation.

This is an extremely empowering book, because we realize as we swim through the pages with our shark Daymond, that even though there are companies with far more resources than we could possibly have, with tight choke holds in the specific market, we will always be able to compete as long as we are broke. (Awesome).

How It Made Me Better

This book is a big blow on Procrastination, which I hate with passion. Basically we can turn around all the excuses we have made not to dream big and take massive action right now into reasons for doing so. Just learning the power of transforming excuses into reasons was worth the read.

The Magic CEO Challenge is to listen to 60 books in a single year on the subject of self development or your particular field, while not changing your schedule or devoting any additional time to this new discipline.

New Year Resolutions are so popular, because we all know that we are capable of so much more. There is that fire within that burns our insides begging us to make the jump from where we are to where we belong. The most frustrating thing I have encountered yet in my life, is the inability to transform this burning desire into action. I want to change, I want to make my life spectacular, can anybody tell me where to start? Is frustrating, because it will keep burning regardless, until something even more painful occurs, it extinguishes.